All articles tagged with #seizures
Functional neurological disorder (FND) causes real, disabling symptoms like weakness or seizures even when brain tests are normal. Brain networks and predictive processing may misread signals, leading the brain to rely on prior expectations and produce symptoms; stigma and misdiagnosis persist, but multidisciplinary care can retrain brain networks and help recovery when patients are believed.
A Welsh woman contracted tick-borne encephalitis after a holiday in Greece, was placed in an induced coma for 42 days, and now lives with memory loss and seizures, taking 15–18 tablets daily; she has become less outgoing, lost jobs, and advocates vaccination and awareness since TBE is preventable but not NHS-funded in the UK, while Public Health Wales notes a very low UK risk and emphasizes tick prevention.
A woman who fainted in college and was diagnosed with anxiety spent about 10 years with worsening symptoms until a Prenuvo full-body MRI, followed by contrast MRI, revealed a lesion that grew into a low-grade glioma in the temporal lobe. Given its location, doctors recommended watchful waiting rather than immediate surgery, with potential future options including awake craniotomy and chemo/radiation. She now manages seizures with medication, remains active, and highlights the importance of thorough testing and regular MRIs for unexplained symptoms.
Whitney Wilkinson, diagnosed with epilepsy at 12, now uses a responsive neurostimulator brain implant that senses seizures and delivers a millisecond pulse to stop them, greatly improving daily life; Intermountain Healthcare has implanted 100 devices in the last decade. The implant is approved for focal epilepsy, requires initial surgery (about a week in hospital) and battery replacement after roughly 10 years, and reduces seizures by about 75% for many patients, with some regaining driving ability and normal activities.
After a 2007 backpacking trip to India, Lowri Denman developed neurocysticercosis with 38 tapeworm larvae in her brain, causing seizures, headaches, and psychiatric symptoms. She endured years of aggressive treatment, steroids, and hospitalisation, ultimately achieving seizure control by 2017 and regaining independence. Now healthier, she’s launching a podcast series called 38 Parasites and a fundraiser to raise £25,000 for a 12-episode program featuring experts in tropical diseases, neurology, and mental health.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Washington has seized roughly $1 billion in cryptocurrency tied to Iran, claiming the funds were pulled directly from wallets as part of a wide crackdown on Tehran’s crypto activity amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.
An infant in North Wales, Rupert Smith, has alternating hemiplegia of childhood, a rare incurable neurological disorder causing unpredictable paralysis and seizures; in the last 48 hours he endured about 12 seizures, with teething cited as a trigger. He requires continuous multidisciplinary care, and his parents have raised over $350,000 to pursue potential treatments in the U.S. and to fund research for a cure.
A Danish study of nearly 50,000 adults with a first-time seizure (average age ~50) found an association with a higher short-term risk of brain cancer within a year, and also an increased risk of non-neurological cancers, underscoring that a first seizure warrants urgent medical evaluation since tumors can provoke seizures even before other symptoms.
A study of nearly 49,900 Danish adults around age 50 found that a first-time seizure in adulthood is linked to a higher short-term risk of cancer within a year, including brain cancer, and a possible increased long-term risk for other cancers such as lung cancer; seizures don’t always mean cancer, but a first seizure should prompt urgent evaluation to check for underlying disease.
A 54-year-old British mother, Kerry Brown, mistook episodes of tingling, fatigue and hot flashes for menopause until an MRI revealed multiple brain tumors. Doctors initially found four tumors, but surgery uncovered a total of 10, with five removed. Brown subsequently faced seizures and partial blindness from optic nerve pressure, and two tumors have begun to grow again, necessitating radiation; she’s now sharing her story to raise awareness and funds for Brain Tumour Research.
A New York City actress misinterpreted recurring seizures as panic attacks for years until doctors diagnosed focal impaired awareness seizures. After SEEG pinpointed the seizure origin, she received a NeuroPace brain implant in 2018–2019; by July 2019 her seizures were gone, allowing her to return to work, and she has remained seizure-free since, though she continues daily meds and will need periodic battery replacements for the device.
New Mayo Clinic findings indicate the brain may hijack memory-consolidation processes after a seizure, with nights of intensified deep (NREM) sleep and reduced REM sleep that strengthen seizure networks and potentially worsen epilepsy. This post-seizure consolidation could explain disease progression and points to a critical window for targeted neuromodulation therapies to disrupt the reinforced networks, an approach being explored by Mayo’s BIONIC initiative.
After surviving an avalanche that caused hypoxia, a 25-year-old German man later developed rhythmic jerks in his left arm specifically while solving Sudoku. EEG showed a right centroparietal seizure pattern; MRI was normal, but functional MRI revealed widespread brain activation with fewer inhibitory fibers in the centroparietal region, linking the hypoxia‑induced brain damage to reflex seizures triggered by visual‑spatial tasks. He was treated with anti‑epileptic medication and rehab, and remained seizure‑free for years, even giving up solving Sudoku.
Venezuela's National Assembly approved a law criminalizing activities like oil tanker seizures, following US actions against Venezuelan ships to pressure Maduro amid ongoing sanctions and political tensions, with the bill now awaiting Maduro's signature.
Rapport Therapeutics' experimental drug RAP-219 significantly reduced seizures in hard-to-treat epilepsy patients, leading to a 119.2% surge in its stock price, with the drug showing promising results and mild side effects.